Nas Prepping Autobiography, Focusing On Acting

Nas is following the lead of his onetime rival Jay-Z, who released 'Decoded' last month, and entering the publishing world with an upcoming autobiography in 2011. When recently interviewed by Pedestrian TV, Nas revealed that his recent cameo on 'Hawaii 5-0' was a preview of coming attractions as he plans to focus more on writing and acting in the future.

"I went at acting," he said. "I went at it in the '90s -- the late '90s -- and I haven't done anything, but I feel like it's a good time to do it. I love movies and I feel like it's a good time to get into movies ... I'm writing movies [and] I'm writing a book now. It's about me, my work and life. It'll probably be out next year."

Nas has always maintained a literary slant to his albums and once used his reputation as a street poet to draw differences between himself and Jay-Z when they battled for the King of New York mantle. His 1999 album 'I Am ... ' was something of an autobiography on wax that took different eras in Nas' life as a starting point for each track.

As far as his longtime day job as a recording artist, Nas is also still promising fans 'The Lost Tapes Vol. 2' -- a follow-up to his original, well-regarded b-sides collection that appeared after the release of 'Stillmatic' in 2002. The album has no definite street date.